Sunday 8 November 2009

Prussian Workbench 3

When my brother and I set out collecting our 15mm Napoleonics all those years ago we concentrated on collecting units from the Battles around Waterloo.

Since joining our local club and starting our collection again we seemed to fall into the same pattern of collecting. Thankfully some of the guys have built up armies for other Napoleonic periods (Chris put together a Bavarian army and Stuart has his Russian army).


When I planned my Old Glory Prussian army I made a point of hitting units that could be used through 1812-1815. I know this still leaves out a lot of nice Prussian units so I decided that if I really want a unit that interests me (Life Hussar, Cuirassiers, Guard) I'll do them with AB figures, at least in part. I always fancied a Prussian Cuirassier unit and I think the East Prussian uniform is the nicest, also I don't have any other East Prussian's to my name so these will be my 1st. I wish I had researched before hand as I am told the Battle Honours Cuirassiers are pretty much the same as the AB versions, Ahhh, such is life!


I had a brilliant GdB Naps game with JP the other day. We played out the Plancenoit scenario in his garage and it worked really, really well. We were not so sure how it would run at 1st but we had a great time. Laughed all the way through and hardly noticed the below zero temperatures (scarfs and hats the order of the day, hardy types us Scottish wargamers!. Over on the GdB website there are a lot of battle reports from the southern hemisphere and I often think how great it must be wargaming in your garage with shorts and a cold beer and maybe the BBQ on instead of freezing your **** off in Scotland in winter!). Sorry got a little distracted there, anyway the vast majority of the troops were JP's and it dawned on me that I need to get my ass in gear and start painting Landwher and Reserves so I have cleaned up four battalions of Landwher and have started painting them as Pommeranian's, the 1st is almost finished. Will post pics of our little Plancenoit experiment soon when JP sends me the pics . . .

10 comments:

Paul said...

Hi, i think its a case of the grass is always greener on the other side,
i would gladly swap an Australian summer for one of your Scottish winters.
cheers
Paul

Paulalba said...

Hi Paul,
Just a little tongue in cheek :-)
I actually like our winters here too however we don't get the snow we loved as kids anymore.
Cheers
Paul

Ken said...

Hi Paul,

I noticed that in addition to been nicely painted your artillery appear to have very business-like muzzels.

What kind of drill or whatever do you use to get the holes?

Cheers

Ken

Paulalba said...

Hi Ken,
I use a pin vice to drill out the barrell ends (any decent hobby/model shop will have them for around £10-£12 the set or check ebay). I also file the muzzels into a proper shape. The Old Glory artillery barrels are a little out of shape and need some work.

Ken said...

Paul,

Can you use these just by hand or do they have to go into a drill?

You will have to forgive my ignorance here but I'm not the most practical guy in the world!

Cheers

Ken

Paulalba said...

Hi Ken,
No probs, I only know about the pin vice because of building wee tanks. You need 2 items. 1) A little pack of drill heads/bits (around 20 if I remember, my brother and I split them). 2) and the pin vice itself that's like a short dumpy pen and is 2 ended. Both ends have a locking/tightening cap and behind the cap is a little gripping tube that can be reversed to hold all the different gauges of drills (you work it by hand). You should get both items sold in the same shop for £10-£12 or less, try ebay though, probably the same place you bought your files? The drills are perfect for opening gun barrels for 40K, 1/72 scale, 28mm muskets and cannon barrels in 15mm, drilling holes for flag poles as well as many other little tasks, it's a great piece of kit I couldn't do without. Careful though as the finer drill bits can be fragile in metal. If you need any help just ask.

Ken said...

Ahh, right I get it. I'm going into Newcastle on Sunday will pop into ModelZone for one.

Cheers

Ken

Anonymous said...

I have been examining your Prussians in great detail....lovely stuff. I think you may well have persuaded me in my opponent of choice for my Frenchies!

Matt

Paulalba said...

That's very kind of you Matt thanks,
Prussians are the best to fight your French but you will have to have some Allies possibly Russians to help, at least until 1814!
Really enjoying your blog btw.
Cheers
Paul

Paulalba said...

very interesting website, although I unfortunately only speak English (and that pretty badly).